Hull pastor leads gay-rights protest at worldwide conference

Will Green works out of the spotlight most weeks, leading worship as the pastor of St. Nicholas United Methodist Church in Hull. But this week, he’s been on a global stage, leading gay-rights protests at the United Methodist denomination’s worldwide conference in Tampa, Fla.

Green, 31, led some 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Methodists and heterosexual allies onto the conference floor Wednesday night as 988 delegates from North America and overseas prepared to vote on proposals to soften the official United Methodist position against homosexuality.

As thousands of delegates and others watched, the group sang and shouted for a voice in church issues for lesbians and gays. Green, who is gay, was at the forefront of another floor action Thursday morning. Unlike the United Church of Christ and other Northeast mainline Protestant denominations, United Methodists remain sharply divided on questions such as gay ordination and same-sex marriage.

Despite the protest, the United Methodist Church voted Thursday to keep doctrinal language that calls same-sex relationships “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Delegates voted by roughly 60 percent to 40 percent to reject proposals that would have softened the language on homosexuality in their Book of Discipline. Gay advocates protested by singing hymns that briefly shut down the assembly.

Green said he and others staged the protests “to keep the General Conference from doing harm (to homosexuals),” by denying them full recognition.

Green, a Worcester native and Boston University divinity student, is pastor of the church in Hull but has not been ordained.

Green is also active with two unofficial United Methodist groups, the Methodist Federation for Social Action and the Reconciling Ministries Network. Like other liberal clergy and lay Methodists, Green says biblical condemnations of homosexuality should not be taken literally.

The “no” votes left Green disheartened, but he said he will keep looking for ways to have “helpful conversations” with conservative Methodists, especially those in Africa.

As for the General Conference decisions, “My faithfulness is not determined by their votes,” he said.